


Living Well Is the Best Way of Living

by orphan_account



Category: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Genre: Character Redemption, Gen, Post-Canon, Television
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:31:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Lina Lamont's biggest humiliation is also her biggest break.





	Living Well Is the Best Way of Living

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Telesilla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telesilla/gifts).



Years later, long after the debacle that ended up making her the woman she was actually meant to become, Lina Lamont read _The Last Tycoon_. "No second acts in American life," she snorted inelegantly. "Trash," she said and threw the manuscript across the room. She'd been a bit interested when she heard it was about Thalberg, but it sure as hell didn't measure up to the Thalberg she'd known. And there was no way it would ever be made into a movie worth seeing.

Lina herself was all about second acts. After the humiliation Don, Cosmo and R.F. had visited on her (and, incidentally, if briefly, Kathy), she'd decided there was no reason she couldn't exploit the situation. That had been her life so far in Hollywood, after all. There'd been a lot of interest in her right after The Incident and, when Kathy agreed to do a radio interview with Lina about the whole fiasco, they'd damn near broken records with their broadcast.

The interview with Kathy wasn't just about The Incident. Lina had asked Kathy about her life in Hollywood before she started providing Lina's voice, how that had come about, and Lina herself had been candid about her failure to adjust to talkies. Kathy had talked about her own reservations about the trick they'd pulled on the world. Kathy was actually a sweet girl, she certainly didn't have to agree to be interviewed by Lina. And she certainly deserved better than that snake in the grass who went by the name of Don Lockwood, no matter how gleaming his toothy, radium smile might be. Lina had no problem being gracious and generous to the girl who'd taken her place and if that cemented her as a good sport in people's minds, so much the better.

That interview, and Lina's newfound humility (at first a forced act that had gradually become genuine), had been the stepping stone to Lina's second act: celebrity gossip. She had something on both Louella and Hedda: she'd actually had considerable success in front of the camera before she changed over. She'd been a star. She'd been Lina Lamont. She got scoops and interviews; some through her own insights and some through other people's pity. She wasn't above taking the latter until she didn't need to anymore. 

A major part of her staying on top of the gossip rag heap was that she could spot a hit or a stinker from a mile away. Even she wouldn't claim to be able to make or break a picture, but she had good instincts for what and, just as importantly, who the public would like.

Which led to her third act. Even while she was working on her second one, she started investing in studios; R.F. had settled out of court for acting in a manner deleterious and detrimental to her career . Unlike most of her fellow gossip mavens, she was careful to keep her ethics intact, which in itself made her a novelty; she always told her audience when she was promoting a picture because she had a stake in it and never bad-mouthed a rival picture unless it was a real dog and everyone knew it. Even if it was one of R.F.'s.

R.F. had even tried to romance her about five years after raising the curtain, using the "bygones be bygones" line. She'd laughed in his face and resisted the temptation to kick him in the pants, figuring she'd finally outgrown that particular habit. And immediately given the public her honest opinion of the R.F.'s latest Lockwood and Selden picture: "a surefire crowd-pleaser everyone will love talking about."

Less than a decade after she'd read that Fitzgerald tripe about second acts, she saw the future and it was television. She was riveted when KTLA became the first television station in Los Angeles -- hell, west of the Mississippi. And she wanted in.

KTLA let her have a fifteen minute show but wasn't interested in her beyond that. Lina knew there was money in both broadcasting and production and, with her nose for properties, she decided to go with production. She picked up a Poverty Row studio for a song (and a mortgage; she wasn't that rich) and cast a wide net for talent. She scooped up the fish who were too little, too intimidated or too disappointed for movie work and got them working on as many projects as they could handle. Everyone on the lot knew she'd listen to any idea, no matter how off-the-wall, and the worst she'd say is, "I don't think that will work; why don't you try again?"

She expanded her own movie gossip show to a half-hour but she really wanted to act again. She and a talented writer who'd been kicked around by MGM, Columbia and Paramount (always rewriting other people's work, never a chance at his own) put together a comedy about a troupe of vaudevillians trying to make it in the silents, only to be caught off guard by talkies.

It was on the nose, as they said in horse-racing circles, but she got good writers, surrounded herself with talent and surrendered to everything her most trusted director demanded of her (of course it was Cosmo, just a little remorseful but still willing to tell her exactly as he saw it). They won awards, critical acclaim and, most importantly, a big audience share.

Her studio, ElElle, branched out. Game shows, talk shows, comedies, adventures, courtroom dramas, Westerns...they did it all. In the late '50s (which was Lina's age, too: she was proud of having been born with the century), she decided to take a chance on something that had a solid if not especially stellar niche in the publishing world: science fiction. A young producer came to her with an idea about a couple of internationally famous astronauts who'd traded in orbiting the earth to go from planet to planet, solving the problems they'd inevitably encounter along the way. And romancing alien ladies who all looked suspiciously like humans.

She went for it and _Stars to the Stars_ became, legitimately, her favorite show. It didn't do too well in the ratings, but she kept it afloat as long as she could. She was long past caring about money; ElElle made more money than Desilu...put together.

In 1958, she attended R.F.'s funeral, not without some sadness. If she could forgive and even learn to trust Cosmo, of all people, she could feel just a bit sad about R.F. and the passing of the old guard. Just a bit. She saw Kathy around sometimes but avoided Don like the plague. Kathy was happy with him, though, and Lina was glad. After all, she and Kathy had been each other's big breaks.

**Author's Note:**

>  _The Last Tycoon_ has been adapted many times, starting with the TV drama anthology _Playhouse 90_ and including a 1976 film which didn't do very well. It's also been adapted for the stage more than once.
> 
> More recently, it's become a TV series on Amazon, starring Kelsey Grammer and Matt Bomer; the pilot aired in 2016 and the first season premiered on July 28, 2017 to mixed reviews but positive audience response.


End file.
